Why did the people of Qumran separate themselves from Jerusalem?
Scholars believe that the people of Qumran departed from Jerusalem or other parts of Israel to retreat from those who they believed were wicked or ritually impure. Members of the Qumran community believed that a very high degree of religious purity was necessary in order to be prepared for the end of times. A legal document among the scrolls called Some Observances of the Law (4QMMT) lists differences between the Qumran group and other religious Jews, perhaps including those of Jerusalem. The document explains that there were at least twenty points of the law of Moses wherein the Jewish groups differed, including their respective views on the offering of sacrifices from the Gentiles, bringing certain animal skins to the temple, sacrificing pregnant animals, eating unborn animals, bringing dogs into Jerusalem, the marriage of priests, and items concerning lepers, the blind, and the deaf (see question 55). The text also explains that, as a result of different doctrinal interpretations, t
